India Steel Market Watch
October 26: Essar Projects, a global engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) company, said its joint venture with Italy’s Saipem S.p.A has bagged a $1.57-billion order from Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) for setting up Al-Zour Refinery Project (ZOR), Package-4, in Kuwait. This is Essar’s biggest third-party order won in the region.
The new refinery project at Al Zour is Kuwait’s biggest development project with crude processing capacity of 615,000 barrels per day (bpd).
KNPC has awarded four contracts for the refinery’s construction, worth over $13.2 billion to successful international bidders, making it the biggest contract signing for 2015.
With this order, Essar Project’s order book has swelled to $2.8 billion, with projects being executed in 9 countries. The company has a track record of setting up large and complex projects in oil & gas (E&P as well as refineries), power, ports and steel. It is currently focusing on third-party orders, particularly in the Middle East, where the company sees significant opportunities.
The scope for the KNPC contract includes engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning and assistance during commissioning, start-up and performance testing, in relation to Package-4 – Tank Farms for the Al-Zour Refinery Project (ZOR). Essar’s portion comprises build-out of tankages, roads and bridges, as well as civil work, on an EPC basis. The project is expected to be completed by 2019.